Battle of Logandème
The Battle of Logandème | |||||||
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19th century junjung of Sine | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
French Empire | Kingdom of Sine | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Louis Faidherbe (French governor of Senegal) Émile Pinet-Laprade (of France, future governor of Senegal) |
Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof (King of Sine - "Maad a Sinig") | ||||||
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Units involved | |||||||
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Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof :
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The battle started around 9 am. About 30 minutes later, the Serer forces overwhelmed by French military might, retreated. However, within few minutes they reappeared on the battlefield and attempted twice to dent the French ranks. They failed and were defeated by the French forces.[1][2] Ndam Sanou and Diakhaté were among those killed. The former died on the battlefield whilst the latter died later from the injuries he had sustained at the battlefield.[3] |
The Battle of Logandème
Background
After the defeat of Queen
This battle was the first time the French made the decision to employ
In May 1859, Faidherbe arrived in
- "I told them that they were French, and that for this reason they had to take arms to join us and had to participate in the expedition that we are going to make against their neighbours to obtain reparations for wrongs those people had done to us."[10]
From Rufisque, the French ally forces entered
The battle
On the morning of 18 May 1859, the French finally arrived in Fatick and took their positions.[12] The army of Sine, which had been mobilised by junjung, stood guard at Logandème. Around 9 am, the Serer army attacked against the French forces. By 9.30 am, overwhelmed by French military power, Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof and his forces were forced to retreat. Within a few minutes, the king of Sine and his cavalry returned to the battlefield. However, they were unable to break the French ranks and were ultimately defeated.[1][2] After the French victory, governor Louis Faidherbe gave the order for Fatick and its surrounding villages to be burned to the ground. Faidherbe claimed that[13] 150 Serer-Sine men were:
- "either killed or wounded, but that the French force had only five wounded".[2]
The French government in Paris criticised Faidherbe for carrying out a military expedition without notifying them. In response to this criticism, Faidherbe claimed that he only occupied an area which had belonged to France since 1679.[14] According to scholars like Klein, Faidherbe was playing with words and was making basic policy in Senegal, which resulted in an occupation of an area that had never belonged to France.[14] Neither the Kingdom of Sine nor any of its provinces had ever belonged to the French.[14]
Aftermath
After his defeat at Logandème and the subsequent occupations of some of Sine's provinces by the French, Maad Kumba Ndoffene Famak was forced into a treaty which he deemed unacceptable. Part of that treaty included: guaranteeing freedom of French commerce, allowing the French a monopoly of trade, giving French traders the right to buy land and build in masonry, the taxes paid to Sine would only be a 3 percent export duty and French subjects were to be tried in French courts.[1][2]
Maad Kumba Ndoffene Famak viewed the treaty as unfair and concluded that the French were trying to undermine his sovereignty. Historians like Klein and Diouf postulates that, the King of Sine was not yet ready to relinquish his country to the French in spite of French directives. On 8 July 1860, he wrote a letter to the commandant of Gorée which read:
You want to take Fadioudj, Mbourdiam and Ndiouk by force. If you prevent me from having these three villages, we will kill all the Whites who come to our country…. If you take Diavalo (
Joal), Fadioudj (Fadiouth) and Ndiouk, there will be a big war between us.
Maad Kumba Ndoffene Famak's threats did little to hamper French dominance in Senegal. However, some of his actions did seriously damage France's economic base in Senegal albeit temporarily, and the damage was very costly for the French administration to repair. To force the French to yield to his demands which included the collection of taxes from and recovery of these provinces, the Maad a Sinig gave the order that all movement of cattle to Joal be stopped. The cattle were destined for Dakar. The peanut fields, which was a major income generator to the French, along with the transport infrastructure were both destroyed. That was followed by a campaign of harassment of French traders at Fatick.[1]
The destruction of the peanut fields did not only affect the French, but also the Serer farmers who bore the brunt of these wars. However, it prevented the farmers of Sine from becoming overdependent on French custom unlike Cayor whose farmers were strongly dependent on France following the famine of Cayor in 1863 and 1864, and Faidherbe granting loans to the Cayor farmers to buy seeds which increased peanut cultivation there, but also forced them to be overdependent on France.[15]
"The French treated Coumba N'Doffène's (Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof's) visit as another example of tyeddo (animist) thievery, but it is more likely that it was another attempt by the Bur (King, the Maad a Sinig) to show the French that he could be a valuable friend or a potent enemy. Coumba N'Doffène's demand was simple: clear recognition of the Bur's (King's) supremacy within Sine."
Martin A. Klein[16]
The
The French conquest of Joal was a severe blow to Maad Kumba Ndoffene Famak, not just economically, but also in terms of defense. Economically, Joal contributed immensely to the country's revenue. The
The French conquest of parts of Sine, Joal in particular, not only benefited the French, but also the Marabout movement of the 19th century who were buying arms from the British in the Gambia via Saloum, and depended heavily on British arms,
Notes
- ^ Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar(2005)
- ^ a b c d Klein, p 57
- ^ a b Diouf, Niokhobaye, "Chronique du royaume du Sine", Suivie de notes sur les traditions orales et les sources écrites concernant le royaume du Sine par Charles Becker et Victor Martin. (1972). Bulletin de l'Ifan, Tome 34, Série B, n° 4, (1972), p 725 (p 16)
- ^ In the French-language works that confrontation is also known as the "Battle of Fatick" or "combat of Fatick"
- ^ See Klein, pp 55-57. Klein made a typo on page 56, instead of May, he put March. For the exact date of the battle, see Cheikh Diouf "Fiscalité et Domination Coloniale: l'exemple du Sine: 1859-1940", Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (2005). The battle took place on 18 May 1859
- ^ ISBN 0-85224-029-5
- ^ a b c d e Le Quotidien (Senegal), La communauté sérère face à la Commission nationale chargée de la rédaction de l’histoire du Sénégal (18 September 2019) [1]
- ISBN 0-85255-276-9
- ^ Sanoumoon Faye was well known for signing treaties with the French and going back against them. For more on this, see Klein - pp46, 56, 106-9
- ^ a b Klein, pp 55-56
- ^ Klein, p 56
- ^ Klein, Martin A., Islam and Imperialism in Senegal - Sine-Saloum, 1847–1914, Edinburgh University Press, 1968, pp 56-57
- ^ A letter he had sent to France, see Klein p 57
- ^ a b c Klein, Martin A., Islam and Imperialism in Senegal - Sine-Saloum, 1847–1914, Edinburgh University Press, 1968, p57-8
- ^ Klein, p 122
- ^ a b Klein, p 106
- ^ Klein, p 58
- ^ Boilat, David "Esquisses Sénégalaises" (1853), [in] Paris, Karthala, 1984, p 1
- ^ See : Klein, pp 88-89, 92, 94
- ^ Sarr, Alioune, "Histoire du Sine-Saloum", (Introduction, bibliographie et Notes par Charles Becker), Bulletin de Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Tome 46, Serie B, n° 3-4, 1986–1987, pp 37-39
Bibliography
- Sarr, Alioune, "Histoire du Sine-Saloum", (Introduction, bibliographie et Notes par Charles Becker), Bulletin de Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Tome 46, Serie B, n° 3–4, 1986–1987
- ISBN 0-85255-276-9
- Klein, Martin A., "Islam and Imperialism in Senegal", Sine-Saloum, 1847-1914, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-85224-029-5
- Boilat, David "Esquisses Sénégalaises" (1853), [in] Paris, Karthala, 1984
- Diouf, Cheikh, "Fiscalité et Domination Coloniale: l'exemple du Sine: 1859-1940", Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (2005)
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